Fate of the Watchman by Chad Pettit – Book Review, Preview

Mirrors are so frustrating! I can be going around, minding my own business and seeing myself as I was when I was in my 20s (but with a better complexion!) and then I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and see that additional weight I’ve put on. And the tired eyes. And. . .

I’m not saying that mirrors aren’t important, after all, it would be horrible to walk around not realizing you have cilantro stuck in your teeth, or that what you are wearing isn’t as modest as you thought! But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look into a mirror and see what you want to see?

Even more than looking into a physical mirror, it is so important that we look into the reflection of ourselves through God’s word.

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

James 1:22-24 NLT

What do you see when you look at yourself through this mirror? When you read that unkind words are the same as killing someone, do you see yourself a murderer? When Jesus says that lusting in your heart is the same as acting on that lust, do you see that you are an adulterer? When he calls to us to show compassion to “the least of these”, how are you doing with that?

As painful as this can be, praise God that the mirror of His word also shows us that He forgives us and strengthens us to be the kind of person He desires us to be. When Jesus washed Peter’s feet (John 13), Peter was embarrassed and tried to prevent Him from doing that. When Jesus told him it was necessary or he would have no part of Jesus, Peter clamored for him to wash all of him. To which Jesus replied

“A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean.”

John 13:10

If you are a believer, He has already made you clean, so if you are seeing, say, cilantro on your teeth, all you need is a toothpick to clean it off, not a root canal. Repent of areas the Spirit reveals need to change and then move on and do the things that God requires of you.

Obedience is not easy – if it was, He wouldn’t have to command it. But we can call on the help of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to be children of God who are pleasing in His sight!

Synopsis:

Lester Sharp is a workaholic, obsessed with the success of his business and oblivious to the world around him. All of that changes when a peculiar stranger comes into his shop asking for food and help. Lester soon finds himself on an impossible journey around the world to bear witness to some of the greatest tragedies a person can know, all frozen in a single moment of time.

In this challenging and gripping novel, debut author Chad Pettit, delivers a supernatural, pulse-pounding adventure in which Lester Sharp is in for the longest second of his life and learns lessons to last a lifetime.

I would like to thank Ambassador International, Just Read Publicity Tours for giving me this copy of the book. This gift did not influence my opinion or review.

The Fate of the Watchman is like looking into a mirror reflecting my soul. Seeing things through Lester’s eyes and knowing that I want to be oblivious to the world around me as he was is a little painful. I know that I’m not as bad as he is in some areas, but not as bad doesn’t mean that I don’t have a long way to go.

The language used is simply beautiful. Having read the author’s bio, I know that he is an English teacher and imagine the continual exposure to the Classics has influenced the way he converts his thoughts into stories. Be sure to take a look at the preview of the book below to get a feel for the way each chapter begins. Wonderful!

This is a challenging book. In a Christmas Carol-ish manner, Lester gets a glimpse of people and events around him. Yet instead of watching with a view of how people perceive him, as happened with Ebenezer Scrooge, he sees the calamities in the world he has shut his eyes against. Things that are hard to look at. Things we all wish we could ignore so they would simply go away.

I like to think of myself as a compassionate person, yet reading this story has me re-evaluating my response to pain and evil around me. Hiding and pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t make it disappear. I appreciate the way the author showed some ugly things and yet didn’t dwell on them so much to make them impossible for me to read. He handled this with tact and discretion. I was also so thankful for the way I was not left without hope or feeling depressed. I became introspective about my need to be more extrospective. There’s some irony for you!

The Fate of the Watchman shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours to finish. I read it more slowly than some other stories of similar length as I read and re-read passages to absorb what was happening. My recommendation is to find a day you can spend a few hours reading and go through it all at once. Leave some time for contemplation when you are done, then pray and ask the Lord what this means in your life and what, if anything, He would have you to change. This is a great book!

About Chad Pettit

I was born and raised in Oregon but have lived most of my adult life in Central Texas. I spent ten years in the Army, which included two combat tours to Iraq. I have been everything from a Lab Technician to a Taekwondo Instructor to finally settling down as an English Teacher.

I went back to school when I was thirty-three and earned my Bachelor of Arts in less than three and a half years. Being a writer has been my dream since I was eight years old, so starting that journey back to college was a major step along the way to making that dream come true. I definitely could not have made it without the support of my amazing wife and four boys.